Storyline custom focus control
========================================================================= Update 4th Feb 2025 Added a second argument that will determine if the target elements content will be announced to the screen reader, using the aria-live=assertive attribute. ========================================================================= There have many been times, when using Storyline to develop content, it has not been possible to get the kind of screen reader focus control that I have needed. Using layers for this can only get you so far. I developed a JavaScript function that allows you to send the screen reader focus to the text field that you want, via any trigger. Adding the following JavaScript to your projects Slide Master will make it available throughout your module: // Check if function has been defined already if (typeof window.setFocus === "undefined") { // Get reference to the Storyline Player var $player = GetPlayer(); // Set the amount of time to delay before attempting to send focus to the target element (milliseconds) 1000 = 1 second. var $interval = 200; // window.setFocus = function ($target, $announce = false) { // Get the target element, based on the passed argument setTimeout(function () { var $div = document.querySelector('[data-acc-text^="' + $target + '"]'); var $id = "acc-" + $div.dataset.modelId $div = document.getElementById($id); if($announce) { $div.setAttribute("aria-atomic", "true"); $div.setAttribute("aria-live", "assertive"); } // Send focus to target, after defined $interval $div.focus(); }, $interval); } } Once the function is defined in your Slide Master, you can then call the function on the page using a JavaScript function, which can be triggered by any Storyline trigger such as timeline start, timeline end, button click etc. // The second argument will determine if the content should // be announced to assistive technology using aria-live=assertive // This will announce the text contents to the screen reader window.setFocus("Customer in the queue", true); // This will just send focus to the element. window.setFocus("Customer in the queue", false); The first argument, which is passed in the "" quotes, is the text contents of the text field you are targeting. You do not have to include all the text, just enough to ensure it is unique. For example, if you have two text fields: "Customer in the queue talking on their phone." "Customer in the shop staring into space." Passing the words "Customer in the" would not be specific enough, as there would be two text fields found. However, passing "Customer in the queue" would send the focus to the text field that contains the text "Customer in the queue talking on their phone." The second argument (true or false) determines if the target elements contents should be announced to the screen reader when it receives focus.Screen reader only text
A technique that is commonly used in web development, for accessibility, is to provide text that is available only to screen readers. The text is visually hidden, but can be accessed by text-to-speech and text-to-braille readers. An example usage may be, an image has been used as the heading of the page (maybe a specific font was required). Whilst an ALT text value on the image can describe it and relay the text contents, it cannot provide the same semantics an <H1> element can. Heading elements provide essential structure to the document for assistive tech users, and also provide really handy shortcuts for navigating through a document. <style> .screen-reader-only { position: absolute; width: 1px; height: 1px; padding: 0; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; clip: rect(0, 0, 0, 0); border: 0; } </style> <img src="https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/multi-ethnic-group-people-holding-text-diabetes-45539467.jpg?ct=jpeg" alt="" /> <h1 class="screen-reader-only">Diabetes</h1> Whilst we can't leverage CSS in Storyline, we can achieve the same outcome for accessibility. Using the same example illustrated above, we have a visual heading. The first step would be to ensure the image itself, is not visible to screen readers, by right clicking the image, selecting Accessibility and ensuring that the checkbox labelled Object is visible to accessibility tools is not selected (check mark is cleared). The next step is to relay this same information to screen readers. Start by inserting a text box on the slide and enter the same text that appears within the image. Then select the text you have just entered using CTRL+A. Then from the Text Styles drop-down menu, select the appropriate mark-up, in this instance, Heading 1. The next step is to check your Focus Order and make sure the new text H1 is in the correct reading order for screen readers. The final step is to emulate the "visually hidden" component of the solution. The most common methods I use is to either: Position the text behind the image that it represents, or Position off the slide (the content will still be accessible, even when position off screen). My first preference is to try and keep on the slide, and in a similar location to the image, but sometimes this is not possible, due to animation that is occurring on the slide, as I like to have screen reader text available right away. Following are the results. The video (attached) demonstrates the difference between ALT text and hidden text and the benefits of semantic mark-up.
